Behind The Themes: Music Video for ‘In It Together’ by Human Life

The concept for the video was spawned by an idea formulated years ago in which the camera were the point of view of a dancer in a pitch-black dance party. As we (the protagonist) run though the darkened space, we encounter a variety of dancers, ‘party monsters’, temporarily illuminated for a moment’s dance before we move onto another one. I had been longing to explore this concept for ages, and I thought that in ‘It It Together’ I finally had my chance to do so.

Through the process of collaboration, however, the idea developed: who was this lone dancer, motivated by fear and wonder for the great, dark disco unknown? Where has he come from and what is he looking for? And once he gets there, what sort of creatures would be lurking in the dark?

It was these questions that prompted the hero’s journey of discovery that ends up making up a bulk of the clip. Though even up until the editing stage, I didn’t realise this would be the case.

We shot a lot of footage of the hero’s adventure though inner-city back streets and equally as much of solo dancers and crowd scenes, so much so we could have made two clips. It’s almost a shame the song wasn’t three minutes longer as there were five weeks worth of costume design and production by a team of six amazingly talented costumiers, I would have loved to have featured them more. However, I think that’s one of the clip’s strengths: the illusion that there is so much more here than we have shown you - which there was!

The film’s look comes down to the production design of Jay Matthews. I had been such a big fan of his blog (http://jaybarrymatthews.blogspot.com/) for months before meeting him, but once we became friends and the idea of a collaboration came up, I knew that his aesthetic applied to a music video (or even a film – if they were to remake ‘Holy Mountain’) would be a civil union made in heaven.

Jay works using mini-narratives of his own, so even I as the director wasn’t aware of the stories behind each of the thirteen looks he designed for the dancers – stories of political upheaval and tribal conflict that manifested in the amazing garments that magnificently come together as one cohesive look for the underground utopia. Some of the costumes were also designed by baby geniuses Jack Mac and Emman Debattista (the ‘rope gridiron player’ and the ‘blonde afro bandage’ looks respectively.)

One of the first thing people say when commenting on the strength of the clip is of course the hero, played by George McCullough. I met George at the Melbourne indie nightclub ‘Sorry Grandma’ (RIP) and I was amazed – and delighted – that he’d never so much as modeled before.

I really came to understand what people mean when they say he or she is “a natural”. Just by putting the camera on George and asking him to do the most menial task it is instantly alluring. George the epitome of ‘the boy’ in the Germaine Greer sense: men and women, gay and straight are drawn to him - possibly due to a mix of burgeoning sexual potency and innocence – a perfect starting point for the journey of the protagonist.

Another triumph of the video is the way in which it is shot. For such an ‘arts ’n crafts’ style of production design to look so glossy also comes down to Stefan Duscio’s cinematography. Stefan, who I’ve worked with on my last few projects - and who I cannot possibly imagine working without, shot on the Canon 5D digital SLR using a set of superior lenses. This gave us freedom in size and mobility – a must when shooting in the inner city on the sly ;) A lot of the tracking shots of George running in the street are Stefan either skateboarding or on a bike with a camera mount. The whole thing just felt so free and easy and a lot of the filming solutions were the result of little planning and us just working creatively in the space.

The magical realism of the clip came from the fact that the protagonist needed to transform along the way, so that by the time he reached his destination, his adventure can be seen as one of self-discovery.

The ‘Mystic’ who emerges from the mountain of garbage bags was a result of me asking Jay to design “Glinda The Good Witch – of Trash”. She signifies the point at which his journey truly begins, as if the universe is guiding him to his fate.

The logo on the flyer, corresponding with the huge paste-up on the wall of the warehouse was designed by a local graf artist Callum Preston, and is inspired by Keith Harring’s work around the time of his collaboration with Grace Jones and is tied to the three basic colours that Jay used in all of the costumes.

So many of the concepts in the video – definitely the ones I like the most – all came as a result of creative problem solving between Jay and I: how to get our little guy from A to B in as visually stimulating a way as possible. And because this is the project where I gave the most amount of creative freedom to the people who I worked with, it was for me an exercise in collaboration, and as a result, the clip I am most proud of.